Pregnant cop in court for murder

Crime & Courts / 7 March 2014, 12:38pm

Sharika Regchand

Cape Town - 090127 - At Khayelitsha's Nonceba Hall on National Police Day there was a meeting to help organize how local organizations could assist the police in dealing with community issues. Photo by Skyler Reid.

Pietermaritzburg - A 31-year-old policewoman made a brief appearance in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, charged with the murder of her alleged boyfriend, who was also a cop.

Thembelihle Ngcobo’s case was adjourned until Friday.

It is alleged she shot Constable Bongani Lembethe, 29, several times in the face at his house in Pietermaritzburg on Monday night. He had returned home at 7pm, parked in the garage and, as he was approaching the kitchen door, was killed.

Ngcobo’s family, who were in court on Thursday, said she had been going out with Lembethe and was pregnant with his child.

They alleged that the woman he lived with, a nurse, for whom he was paying lobolo, and his family, had known about the relationship.

Both officers worked at the police cluster tactical response team. Magistrate Ashin Singh thought it best to have Ngcobo detained at the Loop Street police station.

“I don’t want to send a police officer to prison where she has to deal with people she put in prison,” he said.